Cascading failure

Monitoring the operation of a system, in real-time, and judicious disconnection of parts can help stop a cascade.

If enough routes go down because of a cascade failure, a complete section of the network or internet can become unreachable.

This ripple can make several passes through the same sections or connecting nodes before stability is restored.

Cascade failures are a relatively recent development, with the massive increase in traffic and the high interconnectivity between systems and networks.

Usually, the redundant systems of an ISP respond very quickly, choosing another path through a different backbone.

Properly designed structures use an adequate factor of safety and/or alternate load paths to prevent this type of mechanical cascade failure.

Fracture cascades can occur in various materials, including rocks, ice, metals, and ceramics.

[7] A common example is the bending of dry spaghetti, which in most cases breaks into more than 2 pieces, as first observed by Richard Feynman.

[8] Biochemical cascades exist in biology, where a small reaction can have system-wide implications.

Current research is to find a way to block this cascade in stroke patients to minimize the damage.

Yet another example of this effect in a scientific experiment was the implosion in 2001 of several thousand fragile glass photomultiplier tubes used in the Super-Kamiokande experiment, where the shock wave caused by the failure of a single detector appears to have triggered the implosion of the other detectors in a chain reaction.

Frameworks to study and predict the effects of cascading failures have been developed in the research literature.

[9][10][11] A related (though distinct) type of cascading failure in finance occurs in the stock market, exemplified by the 2010 Flash Crash.

[11] Diverse infrastructures such as water supply, transportation, fuel and power stations are coupled together and depend on each other for functioning, see Fig.

Blackouts are a fascinating demonstration of the important role played by the dependencies between networks.